Foreign Minister S Jaishankar spoke to NDTV on a range of topics including Chandrayaan-3.
India has rejected a new ‘standard’ map of China, which claims it owns Arunachal Pradesh — which Beijing calls Southern Tibet — and Aksai Chin — occupied during the 1962 war. Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar told NDTV in an exclusive interview that China has a “habit” of releasing such maps, telling China that merely including other countries’ territories on its maps meant nothing.
“China has issued maps showing areas that are not theirs. (It’s an) old habit. Just by issuing maps with parts of India… nothing changes. Our government is very clear about what our territory is. Making absurd claims does not make other people’s territory yours,” he told NDTV.
Mr Jaishankar also disconnected the withdrawal talks along the line of de facto control from the new map of China, the release of which was Monday sandwiched between the G20 summit in Delhi next weekend and last week’s “informal talk” between China’s Xi Jinping and the prime minister. Narendra Modi at the BRICS Summit in South Africa. Prime Minister Modi had subsequently conveyed “India’s concerns about unresolved issues along LAC and other areas along the India-China border” to Mr Jinping.
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The map also shows other disputed areas – Taiwan and large parts of the South China Sea – as part of China’s territories. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei all have claims to the latter.
According to a Chinese daily, the map was released by the country’s Ministry of Natural Resources in celebration of Surveying and Mapping Publicity Day and National Mapping Awareness Publicity Week. China’s Global Times posted the map on X (formerly Twitter) saying it was compiled from “the drawing method of the national borders of China and various (other) countries”.
China tried to ‘rename’ places in Arunachal
In April, the Indian government rejected China’s bid to rename 11 sites in Arunachal Pradesh, which it dubs “Zangnan,” — Beijing’s third such blatant move after 2018 and 2021 — claiming that the northeastern state that was and will remain. always remain an integral part of India.
READ | “Invented Names”: India rejects China’s ‘renaming’ of places in Arunachal
“We have seen such reports. This is not the first time China has made such an effort. We reject this outright,” Arindam Bagchi had said at the time, adding, “Arunachal Pradesh is, was and always will be an integral and inalienable country. part of India. Attempting to assign invented names will not change this reality.’
Conflicts between India and China in Arunachal
Indian and Chinese forces clashed along the LAC in the Tawang sector of the state in December last year – a confrontation that occurred amid a months-long border standoff in eastern Ladakh that prompted Delhi to step up overall military preparedness along the LAC strengthen the Arunachal Pradesh sector as well.
READ |Prime Minister Modi and Xi Jinping agree on “rapid de-escalation” in Ladakh
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh had subsequently accused China of trying to change the status quo “unilaterally” and last month Jaishankar said the situation remains “very fragile” and “quite dangerous”.
